At Tuesday’s meeting of the Student Government Association (SGA), the Senate heard a grant proposal from the Students for Environmental Action (SEA), represented by senior John Smeton and junior Simone Weiss.
SEA’s grant proposal was specifically for the Sustainable and Ethical Events (SEE) Grant. SEE grants aim to reimburse student groups that use sustainable food and materials at their events for the difference in cost between the more expensive sustainable materials and the cheaper ones that groups might be inclined to buy without the grant.
Smeton and Weiss argued that the grant would help SEA end its reliance on cheap food for their events, as they noted cheap food is often inorganic and produced using unsustainable practices.
“As for who is going to be taking up this bill and approving these groups who would like to be more sustainable but don’t have the resources in order to do that, it would be [the Security, Sustainability and Development Committee (SSD)],” junior class president Destiny Bailey, sponsor of the bill, said.
Executive Treasurer Dylan Gorman noticed a logistical issue with the grant.
“You’re going down a really dangerous path if you allow groups to retroactively get the reimbursement for an event that happened two months ago. In [the Student Activities Commission (SAC)] we don’t fund events past a certain deadline,” Gorman said.
He argued that the grant would force applicants to navigate a conflict of interests between the SAC and SSD, the arbiter of the proposed grant.
“What you do unintentionally [in the proposed grant] is encourage groups to apply for all the most expensive products on their SAC applications and then SAC will bump it down the list for grants to be approved. My advice would be that the deadline for the SEE Grant application would have to be the same as SAC’s deadline,” Gorman said.
SGA tabled the grant and will decide whether to approve it at next week’s meeting.
Tiffany Sanchez, associate dean of campus programming, was present at the meeting to check in with SGA and offer an informal update from the administration.
“We plan to have the Nolan’s staff work toward the beginning of the semester to offer more things on the evening weekend hours at least one time during the weekend for the first five or six weeks of the semester,” Sanchez said.
She encouraged members of the SGA to communicate with her and the administration on any issues that arise.
“My office door is always open. I’m more than happy to have you guys come if you have a question or a thought,” Sanchez said.
The members of the SGA discussed the new $250 fee for Intersession courses, which they noticed was met with much student anger and frustration. In response, the senate approved a resolution to be sent to the Office of the President detailing students’ issues with the fee.
“It expresses to the administration on behalf of the student body that the Intersession fees are on the minds of many. So much of this is not about the fee but about the lack of transparency in their decision. It resolves that we recommend changes to their communication styles, hopefully, and that they look for alternative methods of funding Intersession programs,” Executive Vice President Janice Bonsu said.
The resolution will be finalized and sent to the president in the near future.
Four groups were approved through the Appointments and Evaluations Committee. Bikemore, the group whose decision was tabled at last week’s meeting, was approved as a special interest or hobby. The group seeks to appeal to the common biker and advocate for the sport. The JHU Robotics Club was categorized as an academic and research group, as it was approved without categorization last week. Voice for Choice, a group dedicated to pro-choice advocacy was approved as an advocacy and awareness group. The JHU Rubik’s Cube Association was approved as a special interest or hobby.
At the meeting’s close, SGA reviewed the announcement made at Saturday’s football game that the University’s mascot has been officially named Jay the Blue Jay. The name was determined through an online poll that was open to all current Hopkins students.
